Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Soon,
we will be celebrating 68th Indian Independence day. India continues to be the biggest democracy –
with people delivering a clear mandate in the recent elections. There have been many martyrs who gave us our
today dating back to the Indian rebellion of 1857 – soon after the British Raj
formed the modern Madras Police as part of its reforms. The history
of Police would date back to 1659 when Pedda Naik was engaged by the British to
Guard the town of Madraspatanam with the assistance of peons. In 1859, a new
Act marked the beginning of Modern Madras Police. The Act was also the
forerunner for the Police Commission set up by the Government of India in 1906.
In 1919, Diwan Bahadur Parankusam Naidu was appointed as Commissioner of Police
- the first Indian to occupy the post. The Chennai Metropolitan Police, a
division of the Tamil Nadu Police, is the law enforcement agency for the city
of Chennai, and is headed by a Commissioner of Police. The city's traffic is managed by the Chennai
City Traffic Police established in 1929. Chennai is the first city in India to
introduce e-Beat system used to measure the daily routine and performance of
the police personnel.

Modern police departments offer their
officers a wide array of ways to cruise around town. There are cops riding in Jeeps,
Innovas, Hyundai cars, Bullets, Suzuki and various other vehicles – and in
Chennai city they are also astride horses.
The horse units over the World are attractive, ceremonial protection for
the Head of States, used in patrols, crowd control and more. Mounted
police are police who patrol on horseback (equestrians) or camelback. Globally,
they serve in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be ceremonial,
employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and
increasingly for crime prevention and high visibility policing roles. The added
height and visibility that the horses give their riders allow officers to
observe a wider area. In the UK, mounted
police are most often seen at football matches, similarly at Chepauk stadium in
Chennai. By some account, Police horses
were first used in London in 1760, when Sir John Fielding, the Bow Street
magistrate, developed a plan to introduce mounted units in order to deal with
highwaymen. Wearing red waistcoats, blue coats and trousers, the Bow Street
Horse Patrol gave protection on all major roads within 20 miles of Charing
Cross.

Chennai
has the famous ‘Mounted battalion’ on good looking horses – and it is a treat
to watch the small group canter by. Every morning they are seen on the picturesque
Marina beach and on holidays when huge crowds descend on the shore – their contribution
is immense. There are some women too in the battalion. The cantering horse with police cop on top
commands respect from people and crowds heed to the warning of the mounted battalion
to keep away from the waters. They love
their job and their horses too.

According
to historian Mr Muthiah, the use of horses by the Police in Madras dates at
least to 1800 when Walter Grant was appointed the Superintendent of
Police. Among the functions assigned to
him was to organise mounted patrols in the city for which he had 30 mounted
persons. With Act of 1856, the strength
rose to 80. Its uniform comprised a blue tunic, sky blue trousers, and helmets
with turbans. In the days when Police
force had no motor power, Inspectors and Sergeants were provided horses. In 1926 a Mounted branch of Madras City
Police was formed with 15 horses exclusively patrolling the city.

Their
job starts early in the day from the stables housed at Pudupet, the horses look
neat with hairs trimmed, embellished with saddle. Though it might appear they are pretty casual
sitting on top – they are reining in tremendous power – that of the horse. The animals can get agitated at the slightest
disturbance – caused by a recklessly driven vehicle; irritantly honked horn;
fire-crackers and sometimes animals too.
Over the period of time, the rider develops special liking for the horse
and perhaps so does the star animal.

This morning
at the Marina beach, opp. to PWD nearer Marina Swimming poll, witnessed a dozen
of mounted police exercising their horses – it was indeed a pleasant and
impressive sight to see the horses gallop in formation, nicely responding to the
commands of their riders. One can also see the logo on the mount.